DING-DONG! Al Pacino's cell phone is chiming -- just as he's about to explain his rationale for agreeing to play yet another gangster type in the new film, Stand Up Guys.

"I'm sorry," he says as he pulls out the distraction and checks the screen. "My little kids are with me this week, so when I have the kids with me I keep the phone on just in case. But it isn't them."

Back to Stand Up Guys, opening Friday, in which Pacino plays the part of Val, a career criminal who has just completed serving a 28-year sentence for refusing to rat on an associate, only to find out his best friend, Doc (Christopher Walken) has been ordered to take out a hit on him.

"I do tend to think twice when I go into any kind of that genre of picture," contends Pacino. "But I think when you compare Donnie Brasco and The Godfather and Scarface and Carlito's Way, you see four -- hopefully, I mean, I try--different characters, but there's a part of you also that sometimes wants to do what the public wants to see you in."

Of course, he's portrayed more than his share of non-criminal types, too, over the course of a very prolific 40-year-plus career, but there's a certain Pacino persona that has always been closely identified with him.

"Somebody just said to me, 'Do you own a gun?' and I said --"

DING-DONG

"You know if they're persistent, it's an agent," says Pacino, pulling out the phone again, just to make sure.

"It's an agent!"

He puts the phone down.

"And I said I have a gun in the film, but I don't own a gun," he continues. "I've never owned gun in my life. I have no interest in a gun."

In person, unlike, say, a Daniel Day-Lewis who's a chameleon when it comes to disappearing into his characters, Al is noticeably the sum of his various parts.

You catch bits of Sonny from Dog Day Afternoon, Ricky Roma from Glengarry Glenn Ross and even Frank Serpico in his demeanor--one which is still in possession of that scrappy underdog charisma.

Not to mention a nervous energy and a younger man's hunger that has kept him working virtually non-stop when many of his contemporaries have been seeking a slower pace.

"Well, the truth is, when you look at me what do you see?" he asks. "I don't have an age!"

While the Department of Motor Vehicles would say it's 72, the point is, Pacino's still very much Pacino, and he credits the work and his two younger kids -- twins, from his relationship with his ex, Beverly D'Angelo -- for keeping him young.

"The kids do help, tremendously I think," he says. "Their presence, their ideas ... I mean, I still haven't learned the computer. They've given up on me. I told my little daughter, 'You've got to teach me how to do that iPod,' and she said, 'Yeah, I know, Dad!'"

While she's at it, she might want to also give him a crash course in using an iPad or Kindle, judging from the books he's got crammed into the pockets of his leather jacket.

"I'm reading all the time," he laughs, pulling out the two dog-eared paperbacks. "This is Othello. And this is an autobiography of Edward G. Robinson. It's very interesting, this book."

If either one has anything to do with his next career move, he's not saying, sharing an actor's superstition about discussing pending plans.

But he will mention his turn as Phil Spector--fright wigs and all--in an HBO movie penned by David Mamet, airing March 24 on HBO.

"Interesting take on it," he says with a sly laugh. "It's gonna be controversial!"

Al Pacino a family man and stand up guy

DING-DONG! Al Pacino's cell phone is chiming -- just as he's about to explain his rationale for agreeing to play yet another gangster type in the new film, Stand Up Guys.

"I'm sorry," he says as he pulls out the distraction and checks the screen. "My little kids are with me this week, so when I have the kids with me I keep the phone on just in case. But it isn't them."

Back to Stand Up Guys, opening Friday, in which Pacino plays the part of Val, a career criminal who has just completed serving a 28-year sentence for refusing to rat on an associate, only to find out his best friend, Doc (Christopher Walken) has been ordered to take out a hit on him.